Brokaw, Pelosi and Pickens

Earlier today, Speaker Pelosi appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press with Tom Brokaw. To his credit, he asked the question folks of the #dontgo movement want answers to. Predictably, Speaker Pelosi gave an elitist answer about how it’s such a tiny fraction of her overall portfolio… gee, I bet most Americans would just LOVE to have $50-100K as .03% of their overall wealth.

What Brokaw didn’t ask was the glaring follow up: how much does Pelosi stand to gain in the $5 billion federal earmark for CLNE gets pushed through on her watch?

Here is the full exchange:

BROKAW: You just mentioned natural gas and emphasized it in your last radio address. And then we read in the “Wall Street Journal” you and your husband made a substantial investment in the plan that T. Boone Pickens put forward which has a heavy emphasis on natural gas.

SPEAKER PELOSI: Let me see if you call substantial 0.3% of our —

BROKAW: between 1 —
SPEAKER PELOSI: It was 50 to $100,000. And it’s part of an entrepreneurial package. This is a package we sign up with. This is what they invest in. That’s not the point. I’m investing in something I believe in. I believe in natural gas as a clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuel.
BROKAW: But you’re also in a position to influence where the emphasis will be and where we’re moving.
SPEAKER PELOSI: But that is — that is the marketplace, the fact is that the supply of natural gas is so big and you do need a transition if you’re going to go from fossil fuel as you say, you can’t do it overnight but you must transition. Investment in wind and solar and biofuels and focus on natural gas, these are real alternatives, you have to ask yourself why, why is this administration not doing. This is the challenge of our generation, it’s national security issue. President Nixon said we must end our dependence on foreign oil. president carter said, it’s a national security issue, economic issue, it’s an environmental health issue and moral issue to protect this environment.